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Life sentence issued for death of Manhattan man

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) -- A Manhattan man who provided the weapon used in a murder has been sentenced to life in prison.

Forty-two-year-old Domingo Soto was sentenced Monday for aiding and abetting the death of 31-year-old Steve Freel in December 2011. He was also sentenced to four concurrent years in prison for drug charges.

KMAN reports (http://bit.ly/R3jMbI ) the sentence came after a judge denied a motion to grant Soto a new trial.

Prosecutors say Soto provided the .45-caliber handgun that 20-year-old Michael Layne used to kill Freel, whose body was found along a rural road near Manhattan.

Layne pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in Freel's death.

Prosecutors say Freel and Layne committed several armed robberies together but had a disagreement, which led to Freel's murder.